2010 Toyota Tacoma TRD Off Road

You want to buy it, drive it, and hope it lives up to the hype. We borrowed, we whipped and we found some real brass in Toyota Racing Development’s trail-special Tacoma. This is not hype: taking a hammer to cars and trucks from the corporate press fleets isn’t always an exercise in satisfaction and, frankly, disappointment happens as often as pleasure. The TRD Off-Road Tacoma is better than that—it works.

TRD Tacoma: Sticker Package or Manufacturer Special?

Toyota Racing Development’s Off Road Tacoma is authentic and trail-ready.

It’s often difficult for an automotive manufacturer to make good with a turnkey special-service vehicle. With rare exception, functionally specific packages often turn into a batch of stickers, tacked-on bodywork and a minor mechanical adjustment to trivial parts, usually at the behest of protecting the warranty. For the OEM to create a specialized vehicle properly often takes significant investment that outstrips net profitability.


Certainly, there’s the argument for halo-vehicles and loss-leaders, but this isn’t always enough of an excuse for a narrow group of significantly designed and optioned interpretations of otherwise commonplace factory offerings (especially when that truck is manufactured at a plant like the shared NUMMI facility in Fremont, CA, which unfortunately is closing down). Toyota Racing Development’s Off Road Tacoma is one of those, with a particular option list full of trail-ready parts that are outside the ken of standard dealership fare, and, in the case of this truck, narrowly oriented for one sort of use: trails and off-road.


Was it worth it? Did Toyota build a truck that works for dirt, or is this just another sticker package?

Excellent Driving Experience Proves TRD Package

Playing on rocks, the Tacoma’s body moved about, but never touched itself.

Instead of reading the parts list, you ought meet this truck where the pavement ends. On dirt roads, the TRD Tacoma is composed, controllable, well damped, and moves smaller than its 4100-plus pound mass indicates (though the truck wears a wider footprint than the snug cabin suggests). Steering input is direct and predictable, and the chassis’ reply is mostly informative. Traction departs and returns consistently, and it’s pleasant to hang the rear tires out for some creative line selections. Some more touch in the steering wheel would be nice, but its on-center feel is predictable. The truck’s overall dynamic on rough roads at speed is very satisfying for a chassis combination straight out of the showroom—you’re not afraid to experiment.


The on-road hands-on was much reflected by this Tacoma’s behavior around rocks: well mannered and comfortable when commuting, trustworthy and controllable when shoved around. Perhaps a result of the valving in the dirt-friendly Bilsteins, there were a few frenetic moments over ill-mannered freeway expansion joints and on the standard poorly maintained San Diego streets. Even this misbehavior was predictable, though, and not alarming.